


sing to me, o muse

by sejutaejo



Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Camp Half-Blood (Percy Jackson), F/F, Heavy Angst, Hurt/Comfort, demigod! Sofia, demigod! Sofia is dead :(, literal Greek muse Calliope, mortal Arizona, pjo references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 04:42:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28576197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sejutaejo/pseuds/sejutaejo
Summary: "You knew and you sent her there anyway!" Arizona erupts along with the tears that have burst from her eyes. "She was too young. I refused you time and time again, but you told me she was safer there. Is this her being safe, Callie? Is this her being safe? She's dead!"or: goddess Calliope and mortal Arizona mourn over their little princess. Camp Half-Blood AU
Relationships: Arizona Robbins/Callie Torres
Comments: 4
Kudos: 19





	sing to me, o muse

**Author's Note:**

> warning: I think this is kinda heavy and sad, I was a little distraught after writing this myself, so yeah head's up if you're not into that. But, if you're looking for extreme exTREME angst then probs dont get your hopes up too high hahaha
> 
> Heavily based on the Percy Jackson series, so if you haven't read PJO then there may be some references you won't understand. But, I think you'll be fine lmao
> 
> For PJO readers, this takes place after the Second Titan War, I added some modifications to the war to help me with the story, but s'fine it was barely nothing

She wakes up to knocks on her door.

Arizona’s eyes open immediately, but awareness does not shine within them. The baby blues have faded into a distant shade, reflecting the intense dullness she is feeling.

She thinks her listlessness is because she has blocked out every thought and feeling, afraid that even a miniscule ounce of emotion would send her careening towards a crushing flood that will break her. Or maybe she has already been destroyed by the flood, and it had caused a breakdown too strong and sudden that it left her unprepared and defeated.

All she remembers is that she shed no tears before her sleep. No room for extended grief, no time for reasons and understanding. The space inside her is full of a nothingness she does not care to erase.

She may as well be a shell, and the foreign strings attached to her limbs are guiding her to heed the knocks on the door. Incessant knocking, they are. Harried and a strong desperation that goes beyond the wooden surface.

The doorknob is cool against her palm, and the click of the door as it opens pervades her mind like a random memory that attaches to her soul. The door opens in silence, and Arizona is too focused on the twist of her wrist and the swing of the wood to care about the person she had opened it for. But, then, she hears her name spoken in a voice that erases her gloom. _‘Arizona.’_

Her eyes flick up, alerted to the person in front of her. She takes in the red lips, the beautifully bronze skin and dark wild hair falling down messily. But it is the chocolate brown specks in her dark irises that truly _wake_ her from her listlessness. They glow their own separate light, powered by a source that is unearthly and eternal. What is she that the goddess looks at her with such necessity? What is she to the person of the love she had found and lost?

“Arizona…” Callie repeats when Arizona does nothing but openly stare.

She cannot be blamed.

Arizona is looking at the love of her life under the soft glow of artificial lights from distant street lamps, and Callie remains just as beautiful as the day she had left seven years ago. Who can dare blame her for feeling overwhelmed?

Once upon a time, she’d found a woman in a secluded bar in rainy Seattle. Her immediate attraction led to a kiss that started a story of affairs with a woman who revealed herself to be the Greek muse Calliope, right before she told Arizona they were having a baby. A year after the baby was born, she’d kissed Arizona _‘I love you’,_ and when their lips parted, she was gone.

Calliope had disappeared long ago. And, although Arizona still aches for her during the quiet nights, although Callie glows right now with the same light that makes her maddeningly aware of each specific beat of her heart, Arizona gives Callie an ice-cold glare that comes from a forbidden darkness deep within her.

It makes Callie flinch, and Arizona can almost see those shining specks of her eyes shatter like broken glass, but when Callie had awoken Arizona from her personal void, the first emotion to rear its ugly head was a rage so silent and still.

“Arizona… I—“ the goddess stammers pointlessly. What had she come to say? Callie had come here because of a need so primal and raw. There had been no time to think of words or to plan an entry, she just needed to be here. And now that she was, all the history between them had caught up to her hasty departure, and it had effectively clamped her mouth shut.

But Arizona wished to hurt her, this arrogant immortal who had left her to raise a child on her own, a child who had been so beautiful and kind an—

“She was only eight.” says Arizona. Her voice is wavering from the intensity. “Sofia—“ she stops, a gasp suddenly tearing from her throat.

“I—I know…”

“You knew and you sent her to that fucking camp anyway!” Arizona erupts along with the tears that have burst from her eyes. “She was too young. I refused you time and time again, but you told me she was safer there. Is this her being safe, Callie? Is this her being safe? She’s dead!” The admittance crumbles her rigid posture. Her lips finally tremble, and her eyes have squinted because of the overflowing tears.

“I—The children below the age of ten were kept in a bunker. Kronos—he hit them from behind. He—he took out the rear—“ images flash through Callie’s eyes like a horrifying slideshow. Explosions and blood and all those tiny bodies. Carnage had fallen down on the only place for their children.

“Bunker? What the fuck, Callie, were you fighting a war?!” Arizona screams outrageously at her. Even though Callie had long repaired the bruises and wounds that marked her body, it still felt like Arizona was seeing the large red gash that had run down the left side of her face and almost blinded her eye. “You sent Sofia to a war, _our child_ —“

_Our child._

The reminder that Sofia was both her and Arizona’s daughter finally brings the absent tears to Callie’s eyes. She had been a wonder, her pure little princess. A tiny thing when she last held her, babbling incoherencies with misplaced confidence and drool. Where was she when the pits of hell opened its mouth to devour her Sofia? Where had she been that even with all her godly powers, she couldn’t save her precious daughter?

Arizona asks, _demands,_ the same to her now. “Where were you?! Why did you leave her _alone_!!?” Her anguished cry echoes the pain of a thousand mothers across millennia. The ghosts that haunt her pleads for Callie’s answer. Where did she go? For who was Sofia’s sacrifice?

“I was at the warfront, protecting the older demigods.” _Saving my other children._

Callie did not need to say it. Arizona knows.

On a bed covered with rose petals and the sweat of recent sex, when Callie had realized their love bore the conception of a fresh miracle within her body, she had confessed to Arizona the truth of her identity, everything about her story beyond the woman the blonde mortal had found at a bar. Arizona knows about her history of exploits that were as old as the pages of the first records of time. She came to understand that there had been others, _were others,_ who roamed the grounds of the earth carrying her blood.

She had promised to accept her whole immortal being, as long as Callie vowed in turn to never treat her like another simple mortal, to love her as wholly and absolutely as Arizona had loved her, and to never leave her side.

And Callie did vow without hesitation. It was so easy to love Arizona, the woman who was so perfectly made for her. And she knew without a doubt that there would be, and had been, no mortal like the dimpled beauty she held that night. So, of course, that had been the easiest promise she made.

But she did leave her, eventually. Callie was still of Olympian heritage, and the great realm of the gods called for Calliope the muse. When she had been at the precipice of her happiness, living inside a home with her beautiful daughter and beloved wife, the summons intruded as foul as a sea storm. She’d kissed Arizona, took one long look at her daughter, and left.

The duties of a goddess weighed above her heart’s selfish desires. But, no glory in Olympus could ever replace the life she once had under the Seattle skies.

If only she could make Arizona understand.

“ _I hate you._ ”

The words wound Callie like the swish of a whip from an ancient Roman general. “Arizona—“

_“I hate you!!!”_

“Arizona…” she pleads.

“Don’t you understand?!” Arizona cries with the rage of a tempest that washes over all of Washington. “You are everything that is wrong with me! You are everything I regret,” _I love you_ “everything I despise,” _I love you_ “everything that should never have happened in my life!” _I love you, and I would live those two years with you all over again the same way if I could, even if you left me every time._

Arizona breaks down, her heart in painful contradiction. “I hate you.” _I love you, so much._

“Arizona, I love you.”

Another flood of tears burst from Arizona’s eyes at Callie’s declaration. She was so easy to love, so easy to take back. But the darkness whispers other things to her mind. _“You killed Sofia.”_

This time, Callie cannot respond. The accusation has more power than Zeus’s lightning bolts, can hurt her more than the monsters she had fought during the war. It was the truth. She cannot defend herself against truth. _I killed Sofia._

“You chose your other children over our daughter. You chose some stupid godly calling over her. You left her to die when she trusted you to protect her!”

Arizona still remembers the day she found out about Camp Half-blood. Sofia had just turned six, and they were celebrating her birthday. Just the two of them. Her hours as a surgeon never left much time for Sofia, and it hurt her that this was the best she could do for her daughter: an hour together at the closest park from the hospital.

They had been strolling, both of them eating ice-cream, both of them sweet-toothed. Sofia had stopped so suddenly that it had worried Arizona. Her instincts as a doctor immediately went overdrive, checking the little girl for any medical problems.

Five seconds later, Sofia simply smiled at her like she hadn’t just frozen over as still as stone. Her eyes had gone brighter, her toothy smile was more brilliant than it had ever been. _“I just spoke with Mama.”_ She said so happily. _“She told me to go to New York.”_

Sofia looked around her like she could still see her mother who disappeared years ago, and Arizona followed her eyes, felt the breeze, watched the separate leaves in the trees, as if she could find a trace of Calliope in those little designs of nature.

(She didn’t find one, she never finds any.)

Arizona wasn’t surprised about these brief moments Sofia takes for herself, or rather, for her distant conversations with her godly parent. They happened occasionally, although it hurt Arizona that only Sofia could feel Callie’s presence.

But that didn’t mean Arizona would just allow Callie to suddenly uproot their lives in Seattle and move to New York, even if it was some godly mandate that forced her.

She refused the first year, but then it happened again on Sofia’s seventh birthday. That sudden calm that washes over her daughter into temporary blankness. Again, Sofia told her about New York, about a place for children like her, _demigods_. And Arizona refused with more conviction than last time. If anywhere was safe for her child, it was with her mother.

(Arizona also thinks that part of the reason she had refused was the idea that if she refused enough times, then Callie would show up to her herself.)

But then, Sofia’s episodes suddenly frequented. It happened once a month, then once a week, then, by the end of the year, at any time of the day. It happened anywhere, inside their home, on the drive to school. During class. While crossing the road. Still, Sofia would tell her about New York. Still, Calliope would not show herself.

And it had already worried Arizona enough that, by Sofia’s eighth birthday, she’d finally conceded to her absent wife’s invisible demands, and she took her daughter to Long Island, New York.

Despite all her worries and hesitation, she’d let go of Sofia’s hand when they stood in the middle of the woods in Long Island. And Sofia had gone walking, pink backpack on her back, to a direction that Arizona, for the first time, could not follow.

That had been the last time she’d seen Sofia. Back turned towards her. A pink spot against the earthy hues of the woods.

“Did she mean anything to you?” Arizona asks the woman hunching in grief before her. “Was she ever more than another _demigod_? More than another child-soldier for your mythical army?”

_“Let’s name her Sofia.” Said Callie, smiling at the small weight in her arms bundled in pristine white cloth even as sweat clung to her forehead at the extensive effort of labor. “It’s Greek. It means ‘wisdom’.”_

_“Sofia…” Arizona tested the name on her lips. “Sofia Robbins-Torres.” She smiles at the image before her. Her beautiful Calliope, and their precious baby Sofia._

“I loved her, so so much.” Callie sobs, the ache in her heart so incredibly heavy for the child she had lost. “I loved her more than anyone, more than anything that has happened, more than the past, present and future combined.”

“Then, why did she die?”

Why did she, indeed?

If Callie had loved Sofia, if everything Callie did was for her, then why was she not with her?

“I don’t know…” The question burns itself into her brain, and Callie knows that this will be the mystery that defines her immortality.

“She loved you too.” Says Arizona, sounding so broken and tired and too delicate for Calliope to look at any longer, as if the weight of her gaze could break the blonde woman even more than she is already broken. “She loved you so fiercely. She loved you so fully.”

“I loved her like no other.“ her knees drop to the ground. There are no more tears, and she does not sob horribly, but she is tired, exhausted. The weight of her godliness has lifted or has enlarged so much that it has dulled her senses. Listlessness. A void incomparable to Tartarus.

She feels Arizona kneel in front of her crumbling figure on the floor, feels her arms wrap around her body, feels them pull her tightly against Arizona’s chest. She can inhale Arizona’s scent, and her fragrance imprints itself into her mind. The only impression that makes its way into her memory. The smoke of cigarettes, the sweetness of strawberries. They sound like some melody.

“I taught her to sing.” Callie says unexpectedly. “I made the breeze play melodies around her. Made the light dance across her eyes. And she understood me so well that it made me love her like I’ve never loved before, so I taught her to sing.”

“Yes,” Arizona replies with her head settled on Callie’s shoulder, her eyes are closed for the memory of her daughter, for the permanent mourning that will stay until she herself can follow Sofia once more. “And, just like you, she always sings so beautifully.”

* * *

_“Sofia…”_

_Brown eyes flit up, searching for the voice. She heard her name in the wind. In the breeze. In the leaves of the trees that dance in festivity._

_She knows that voice, has heard it before in memories so impossibly long ago._

_“Sofia…”_

_Sofia turns around, and her mother stood before her wearing robes of light and golden laurels. So beautiful. She feels at awe._

_“Sofia, I missed you so much.”_

_“I miss you too, Mama.” Then she adds, “Mommy misses you too. So so much. Much more than me, I think.”_

_Her mother smiles, but she looks about to cry. Sofia moves towards her, tries to comfort her. “I miss her too. Sofia, tell your mommy I love her. I always miss her. I want to come home to both of you, so much.”_

_“Then come home, Mama.” Sofia says so plainly, blissfully unaware of the celestial chains that bind Callie to the other realm. “Come with me. Mommy will be so happy to see you again.”_

_“I’m sorry, my love. I can’t leave here.” Callie almost cries, but she traps the sobs to the back of her throat._

_Without hesitation, Sofia shoots back. “Then we’ll go to you.” Determination fills her little voice. She fights so ferociously for a young child. “Where are you, Mama? We’ll find you. Tell us where you are. We’ll follow you! And we can be together! The three of us!” Her tiny hands have curled into little fists, making her a picture of a warrior so fierce._

_An idea enters Callie’s mind. It brightens her eyes, makes her smile so giddily. Sofia can’t help but smile back. “Sofia, go to New York.” She tells her daughter. Excitement charges her voice, makes her glow brighter._

_“New York?”_

_“Yes, yes. Listen to every word I say. Every word. Tell your mother to send you to Camp Half-Blood. It’s a safe place for demigods like you. It’s on Long Island, New York, do you hear me?”_

_“Long Island, New York. Camp Half-blood.” Sofia repeats as she stares at the excitement in her mother’s eyes. Her own eagerness rises up within her._

_“Yes, Long Island. That’s where my powers are strongest… Well, actually, I’m strongest in Manhattan where the Empire State Building is, but I suppose New York City is still pretty close to Long Island…”_

_“Man flattened?” the tiny girl had struggled to catch up with her mother’s rambling._

_“But we can see each other!! I can visit you anytime I want, since you’ll be at the camp during the summers. And I can finally see Arizona in New York. I can hold your mother. I can hold you. The three of us can finally sleep in the same bed again, although we should get a bigger bed considering how much you’ve grown. Oh, my little baby, you’ve grown so well…”_

_Although Sofia does not have a memory of being held by both her mothers as she slept, the idea of finally completing her family had thrilled her. “We’ll finally be together, Mama!”_

_“Yes! We’ll finally be together. The three of us.”_

_At New York._

_She blinks once, and her mother had vanished. Instead, the worried blue eyes of her Mommy replace her Mama’s brilliant image. Arizona was looking at Sofia in a panic, scanning her tiny body up and down in the middle of the park._

_“I just spoke with Mama.” Sofia smiles brilliantly, so radiantly that it reminds Arizona of Calliope’s innate godly light. “She told me to go to New York.”_

_It was her sixth birthday._

**Author's Note:**

> PJO was trending on twt so I had an idea that I half-mashed with that Calzona Reincarnation AU I wrote last Nov.
> 
> And, yes, I am aware I'm writing an unhealthy amount of absurd Calzona AUs, but I am attached to this ship like a sea raid captive and I need them to live through my stupid stupid ideas :(   
> (someday, I'll be writing something so very stupid like, idk, Calzona as Justice League, and that's when I know I need to Stop)
> 
> Also, I heard it was Calzona Day, so Happy Calzona Day y'all!


End file.
